Ald Terrace Review — Wednesday, September 5, 1990 : CLASSIFIED | City balks — omwsnmns Notices JOCUS Educational Toys — will have having an — 7 OPEN HOUSE to introduce our new catalogue. Come join us at 4112 Sparks on ; Wednesday, September 12 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. or 7 p.m, to 9 p.m. For more information | | Terry Walker at 635-3287 or Liz Haws at 638-0827 FREE INFORMATION about the Watchtower Society. Has it been honest with you? For 24-hour re- corded message, phone 847-4354. New topic every week. Vicki Parviainen Dance Classes — Variety with classes of Jazz, Ballet, Ethnic Character and Tap. Limited enrollment available for 5% years and up. Registration at Parkside School gym on Wednesday, Sept. 12 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. For pre- registration (recommended) or fur- ther information, phone 885-7483. (5p 9 Personal Charile Menzies — or if anyone knows of his whereabouts, have him call Blair Marshall at 624-5304. 9/5p on 9/19p - DELIVERY DRIVER deadheading to Prince Rupert is required to deliv- basis. Please phone 635-7840. er material on a weekly | WIll babysit In my home, children, 18 months to three years. Must be full- time, Monday to Friday, one block from Uplands school. References available. Phone 635-2118. 9/15p Loving mother wishes to babysit in own home. Preferably kindergarten age. Looking for friend for four-year- old. Phone 635-5809. 9/15p Anyone having any pictures of Kalum St. between Greig and Lakelse (particularly the first Over- waitea store in Terrace, where Queensway Trading is located now), please contact Coreen at 635-7954 or leave a message. 9/12c Wanted to buy — boat trailer for a 12- ta 19-foot boat, in good candi- tion. Phone 638-0240 after 4:30 p.m. SH2p Baste cabin for one aspiring writer In quiet wooded area around Terrace required for approx. one year. Please reply to File 31, c/o Terrace ‘Review, 4535 Greig Ave., Terrace, B.C. V8G 1M7. 9/12p egal INVITATION TO TENDER LOCAL WORK CONTRACT E704-022 B.C. Hydro Is inviting tenders for pickup and delivery of ship- ments containing monles, cheques, mail and/or securities from the B.C. Hydro office at 5220 Keith Avenue to specified locations in Terrace. Companies must be bonded under the Pri- vate Investigators and Security Agencies Act. Sealed bids must be received at B.C. Hydro, 5220 Kelth Avenue, Terrace, no later than 11:00 a.m. September 12, 1990. Tender documents are available at the above office. For further information please contact Dave — Bulger at 638-5629. ; BGhydro NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND OTHERS Notice is hereby given that credi- tors and others having claims against the estate of ROGER BRENT HICKS, deceased, who died on July 12, 1990, are hereby ‘équired to send them to the undersigned Administratrix at 4509 Lakelse Avenue, Terrace, British Columbia, VBG 1P3 on or before the 15th day of Septem- ber 1990 after which date the said Administratrix will dis- tribute the said estate among parties entitled thereto, having regard to the claims she has notice. DIANA ALBERTA ELKINS Administratrix with Will Annexed By: CECIL GC. PRATT POSTAL CODE: VOU 2A0 RANTY PROGRAM, — tact: Dolly Watts. Solicitor GITWANGAK ~] BAND COUNCIL INVITATION TO TENDER OWNER: Gitwangak Band Council ADDRESS: P.O. Box 400, Kitwanga, B.C. NOTICE TO TENDER CONTRACT TENDERS ARE REQUIRED FOR HOUSE CONSTRUCTION Sealed tenders will be received by the undersigned for the construc- - tion of 12 Residential Units (single family dwellings). Plans, specifications, and other tender documents will-be available to prime contractors at tha office of Gitwangak Band Council. . One set of tender documents will be Issued to each prime contractor . upon deposit of $50.00 per set, refundable on return: of tender documents in complete and good condition. Each tender shall be accompanied by a bid bond duly executed with the name of the project and the owner in the amount of at least 10% of the tender price and an Undertaking of Surety by the Bld Bond Surety to provide a Performance Bond and Labour Material Payment Bonds each In the amount of 50% of the contract price. -‘Tanders will be received at the Gitwangak Band Council office not later than 2:30 p.m. (PST), Friday, September 14, 1990. THE LOWEST OR ANY TENDER WILL NOT NECESSARILY BE ACCEPTED. ALL BUILDINGS MUST BE WARRANTED BY THE B.C. NEW HOME WAR: Questions ara directed to: Gitwangak Band Council: 849-5591. Gon- L five-year deal was worked out with the company to provide specific contracted services for an. annual’ fee of $415,000. And then there was one other _ change. The government needed | someone to process all the data that was going to be created, so they transferred a group of former laboratory employees into its Data Standards Group. This group was to use information provided by B.C. Research to assess the relia- ‘bility of analytical results produced by Zenon and waste management permit holders, the City of Terrace being one of those permit holders. With this structure in place, the government had to pay for it all. In part they did this with a new regulation requiring all permit holders to pay an annual fee for service to B.C, Research. Accord- ing to the Auditor General’s report, it was expected that a total of 800 licence holders would pay $560,000 to B.C. Research every year. All this was done without asking the licence holders how. they felt about the new system. This is what upset the City of Terrace, the problem being what . they could expect to get-in return for their annual fee: most years, it appeared, that would be absolutely nothing. This is how the system was to work: under their waste manage- ment permit, the city is required to test sewage effluent weekly and submit samples and documented test results monthly. The, Waste Management office in - Smithers, then, would select a few of these each month and ship the sample and test results to Zenon. Zenon ‘ would test- the sample, B.C. Research would compare the T. Zenon results with those of the permit holder,.and Data Standards would put all the results together and send them back to Waste Management. And how did it really work? In the first year and a half of operation Terrace sewage effluent was only tested once, and the results coming out of the system were wrong. City Director of Operations John Colongard explains that Waste Management took a sample and the city took a sample. When the city went to do their test, however, they discovered they had run out of a necessary chemical. They advised Waste Management immediately that they ‘had been unable to complete this one test and that they should dis- card the sample they had collected. Somehow, though, Waste Management’s sample. showed up at Zenon and B.C. Research sent out a report comparing the Zenon _ fest results with the city’s. But this wasn’t possible. The city had never tested a sample for the noted date and had therefore never submitted any results, Where, did B.C. Research get their figures, then? No one, at least in Terrace it seems, has any idea at all, This is apparently not an unusual _ situation under the privatized sys- tem. The Auditor General’s report notes in the. conclusion of their audit on, the performance of the privatized system: "We concluded that the ministry did not have an - adequate system to ensure that the quality of work preformed by the privatized laboratory met its expec- tations. The quality assurance program designed by the ministry did not include the ‘procedures required of a sound monitoring | system. In addition, the procedures that had been implemented were not operating satisfactorily." _ And the Auditor General is also critical of the ministry’s financial arrangements with the privatized companies, In fact, "We analyzed the ministry’s data and concluded that the direct costs of the services provided during the first year of the contract were more than they would have been had the ministry continued to operate the Environ- mental Laboratory." Noted examples are the fact that the government is paying nearly five times the agreed-on interim contract price. And, in the first year of the contract, the govern- ment paid $180,000 to Zenon for . which -no work was ever done. This is because the contract calls for a minimum monthly payment. to Zenon of $198,333 every ‘month. Even if that value of work is never performed. Terrace is not alone — many B.C. communities are refusing to pay B.C. Research. As Colongard explains, "We would be prepared to pay for work that is done." One test in a year and a half, returned . with data that was never submitted, — can hardly be described as "work that is done", however. . But this is just one of four bud- getary problems facing city council _and by far the least expensive. The B.C. Research matter, in fact, is more a matter of principle than money, according to Colongard. No one is certain at this point, but possibly a new Waste Manage- ment permit fee is going to help the province cover a part of the cost of privatized sample testing. The city received a bill from Waste Management in June for $5,400. This was the cost of their ‘ permit to operate the sewage treat- ment plant. At the time, city coun- cil had already finalized their budget and had no idea what the bill was for. So this was another refuse-to-pay with a letter asking | for some kind of explanation. As of press time, the city is still wait- ing for a reply. Colongard says, however, that the government has suggested the money was to pay for environ- mental work and that it may be possible some of the moncy will be returned in the form of grants for this purpose. But even this figure of $5,400 seems to be some sort of interim number, The minis- try has said that effective January 1, 1991, a new system would be in place and the fee would be based on the quantity and toxicity of each permit holders discharge. They didn’t indicate whether it would rise or fall in the current — rate for our sewage plant but did suggest there might be an addi- tional charge. A new fee for sani- tary landfill operations is going to be implemented at the same time. Just how much this will cost is unknown. And there's one other bill loom- ing over the city’s head, awaiting an explanation. Colongard says they still naven’t bee told why their radio communications licen- sing fee was upped 1,039 percent last February. Communications Canada simply submitted a bill, and again council had already finalized ihe next year’s budget. At the time, the city complained to the federal Minister of Com- munications, the Minister of State — for Privatization and Regulatory Affairs, the Radio Regulatory Branch, Prince George MP Frank Oberle and Skeena MP Jim Fulton, but council and administration are still waiting for an explanation. In 1989, the city paid $325 for radio licences for both the Fire Department and Public Works Department; their bill for 1990 is $3,202. Other communities were hit harder: Surrey, for example, was hit with a 3,035 percent fee hike. The Union of B.C. Munici- palities is heading up the protest. on the radio licensing rate hikes on behalf of all B.C. communities. ‘So it’s much more than the few hundred dollars B.C. Research wants. It’s an amount greater than - $9,000 due to unexplained changes in federal and provincial policy. And from what the Ministry of | Environment has said, next year it could be even more. Drilling — Continued from page Al past by geologic activity. He said the floor of the valley may have: “down-dropped" by as much as: half a. kilometre, placing the sur- face nearer to sources of under- ground heat. In analyzing the available data, - Fairbank believes there is a good chance that a layer of clay has trapped an aquifer underground much hotter than the surface studies of the hot springs would indicate. If their proposal is approved, Fairbank Engineering will send up a survey crew this fall to look the ground over. Starting in the spring, the company intends to drill three test wells over the next two years. Fairbank estimates the cost of that portion of the program at about $300,000. If the resulis show the resource is sufficient for electrical generation, the investment that follows would be in the tens of millions. The company intends to keep the local public and the Kitimat- Stikine Regional District informed of all their undertakings in the area, Fairbank said. He is aware of concems expressed by the regional district and Mount Layton Hot Springs owner Bert Orleans. Orleans said in a letter to the ministry July 18 that he is worried about the effect of underground drilling on the existing hot springs. Underground disturbances that changed the temperature or avail- ability of natural hot water at the surface could put him out of busi- ness, he said. If the exploration proposal is approved, it would apply to 3,168 hectares in a rough rectangle at the south end of Lakelse Lake.